The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII

Name: The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII
Brand: Grand Central Publishing
SKU: 9781538767115
Price: 39.00 USD
Availability: InStock

$39.00

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"A compelling narrative"-- Cipher Brief

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"Endlessly compelling... a long overdue and highly enjoyable biography... Braude has delivered the prescient Flanner to us, nearly five decades after her death, at exactly the right moment."-- New York Times Book Review

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"An absorbing, expertly paced work of narrative nonfiction."-- Wall Street Journal

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"[C]ompelling...[Braude] skillfully recaptures the glittering milieu in which Flanner was constantly partying with Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway or some other luminary."

-- The Minnesota Star Tribune

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"A remarkable look at the City of Light in the growing shadow of Nazi Germany... The Typewriter and the Guillotine brings 1930s Paris to life for modern readers."-- New York Post

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"[A] sharply honed new history ...In Braude's telling, Flanner is not straightforwardly heroic, but she is always evolving."
-- The Atlantic

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"Impeccably researched and elegantly written, The Typewriter and the Guillotine illuminates the glamour and grit of interwar Paris through the eyes of legendary New Yorker correspondent Janet Flanner. Mark Braude transports readers from the smoky cafes of Saint-Germain to the charged streets of Versailles, where Flanner witnessed France's last public execution. Both intimate and sweeping, this remarkable narrative captures Paris at its most dazzling and dangerous, and Flanner in a moment of creative alchemy--turning history's darkness into enduring art."-- Paula McLain, bestselling author of The Paris Wife and Skylark

Biographical Note:

Mark Braude is the author of three books of nonfiction, most recently Kiki Man Ray: Art, Love, and Rivalry in 1920s Paris, a New York Times Notable Book of 2022 and a New Yorker Best Book of the Year. He has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, a Visiting Fellow at the American Library in Paris, and an NEH Public Scholar. He has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. His books have been translated into seven languages. He lives in Vancouver with his wife and their two daughters.

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"Thrilling, strange, and altogether wonderful, The Typewriter and the Guillotine proves that nonfiction is as dramatic, unpredictable, and compelling as any fiction. Braude's book celebrates the great journalist Janet Flanner; evokes the darkness of the wartime world; and exposes the fascinating story of a German con man and serial killer. It's irresistible."-- Susan Orlean, bestselling author of The Library Book and Joyride

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"In his urgent, intense new biography, Mark Braude has brought new illumination to Janet Flanner, a singular writer, whose documentation of WWII Europe - and the drumbeat of the escalating totalitarian movements that set the war in action - is acutely relevant. An engrossing, vivid, and whipsmart exploration by a historian who deeply cares for and understands his heroine."-- Lesley M.M. Blume, bestselling author of Everyone Behaves Badly and Fallout

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"A double whammy coming-of-age story: of Janet Flanner, an American journalist in Paris in the 1920s; of the New Yorker, a brand-new magazine, breezy, giddy, lightweight, and attempting to appeal to the man-about-town reader. Flanner soon finds herself jumping into the deep end, without knowing how deep it is (spoiler alert: as deep as it gets--the rise of fascism, the trial of a murderer); and she convinces the New Yorker to jump right along with her. A remarkable book, highly inventive and wildly original."-- Lili Anolik, bestselling author of Didion & Babitz

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"Part biography, part true crime narrative, this book presents something rare: a novel story about interwar Paris. Rarely does one not want to turn the page...a significant work of nonfiction."-- Kirkus Reviews

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"Successful on many levels... The Typewriter and the Guillotine does an excellent job of using compelling individual stories to explain seminal historical events." -- Book Page, starred review

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"The undeniable magic of Paris, the dangers lurking in a changing world, the thrill of breaking boundaries and chasing dreams...this riveting read captures a moment in time that changed the course of history, and fiction and nonfiction readers alike will relish the front-row seat."-- Amazon Book Review

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"If you're fascinated by World War II history, don't miss this tale of Janet Flanner." -- BookBub

Publisher Marketing:

ONE OF KIRKUS'S 20 BEST BOOKS OF JANUARY
ONE OF BOOK PAGE'S TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE MONTH

The "endlessly compelling" (NYT Book Review) untold story of a trailblazing Paris correspondent for The New Yorker, who sounded the alarm about the rise of fascism in Europe while becoming enmeshed in the sensational case of a German serial killer stalking the streets of the French capital on the eve of WWII.

In 1925, the Indianapolis-born Janet Flanner took an assignment to write a regular 'Letter from Paris' for a lighthearted humor magazine called The New Yorker. She'd come to Paris to with dreams of writing about "Beauty with a Capital B." Her employer, self-consciously apolitical, sought only breezy reports on French art and culture. But as she woke to the frightening signs of rising extremism, economic turmoil, and widespread discontent in Europe, Flanner ignored her editor's directives, reinventing herself, her assignment, and The New Yorker in the process.

While working tirelessly to alert American readers to the dangers of the Third Reich, Flanner became gripped by the disturbing crimes of a man who embodied all of the darkness she was being forced to confront. Eugen Weidmann, a German con-man and murderer, and the last man to be publicly executed in France--mere weeks before the outbreak of WWII. Flanner covered his crimes, capture, and highly politicized trial, seeing the case as a metaphor for understanding the tumultuous years through which she'd just passed and to prepare herself for the dangers to come.

The Typewriter and The Guillotine offers the personal and professional coming-of-age story of an indomitable journalist set against a glamorous, high-stakes backdrop--a tightly-coiled drama full of romance and intrigue.

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